Lock and Key
by pamylz
Summary: She had thrown away the key into the ocean. He was optimistic to open her lock his own way. Set in the freshman class of East High, a story of a Troy and Gabriella’s journey and relationship as they discover the value of their unique love.
1. Chapter 1: Bell and Hope

She crept into the room, padding on her soft white paws, ready to begin her daily morning ritual. Taking a quick look around the tidy room, her own little kingdom, she leapt onto the bed and nudged at the crumpled form beneath the blankets.

"That you Bell?" mumbled a quiet voice. The one-year-old cat pounced on the lump of blanket in response.

"Stop jumping already, I'm getting up," a sleepy fourteen-year-old's face framed by wavy raven hair revealed itself as the girl lifted up the blankets and reached a hand to stroke her purring best friend.

It was the second week of January and her first day as a freshman at Albuquerque's East High; exactly seven days after the most magical New Year's Eve Gabriella had ever had, spent in a cozy ski lodge in Michigan. It was ten days since her father had abruptly got married without telling his daughter despite her being with him until a week prior to the wedding. Three weeks had passed since she had left her childhood friends and her hometown and braced herself for what would be the most influential change in her life.

Gabriella got out of bed and walked over to her closet, picking out a pair of jeans, a navy blue shirt and an Aeropostale sweatshirt to form a casual outfit to wear. Satisfied, she quickly brushed her hair and went downstairs for breakfast while the ever faithful British shorthair cat followed her every step. Eating the fresh bread her mother had prepared, she wondered how her first day would go. This was the first time she was transferring schools, excluding the transition from Primary to Secondary. She was scared, nervous and thrilled to start a new chapter all at once. At least living with her mother would be heaven compared to living with her father who was gone two thirds of the time.

The cool wind blew across Gabriella's face as she walked to the designated bus stop for the bus she needed to catch, bus 28. Seeing the rising sun, Gabriella decided that that was what she had to do with this chance of a new life: rise up.

_Do what you think is best and whatever will be will be_. She smiled to herself; that had been the best self-advice ever.

---------------

Hastily drinking down his glass of milk, the teenager stuffed his feet into his worn down sneakers, hefted up his bag and rushed out the door yelling "Bye Ma!" over his shoulder at the last second.

Chuckling at her son's eagerness to start his second semester in high school, Lucy Bolton shouted back "Have a great day at school Troy!"

Troy rolled his eyes but his face lit up when he spied the approaching yellow vehicle. His mind was already going through exactly what he was going to tell Chad and the rest of his friends when he arrived at East High. Then the memory of a week ago struck and for a minute he was oblivious to the bus drawing closer. For a second his vibrant blue eyes softened. For a moment a gentle smile graced his appearance. He would definitely be telling Chad about the fantastical New Year's Eve he had experienced.

The sound of an engine slowing down caused Troy to shake himself out of his reverie and with a grin he stepped onto the bus and sat down on the green double seat, carelessly dumping his backpack beside him. He had always been an exceptionally optimistic boy and today was no exception. With his earphones in and a bright expression, he relaxed, anticipating a peaceful but fun-filled semester. After all, what were the chances that he would ever see his dream girl again?

Boy, should he have known to never underestimate fate.

---------------

Gabriella's eyes widened as she took in the multitudes of students milling in front of the smart and traditional building. There seemed to be—and probably was—over a thousand students at various places in the school and she was immediately able to pick out the cliques. Academics were sitting by the wall, thespians and musicians on the grass, skaters at the stairs, jocks around the central fountain and their following of girls hovering around them. However, with a more observant eye, Gabriella realized that it was not all black and white. A cheerleader could be seen chatting with a flutist; a skater was catching up with a scholastic girl. _This was going to be interesting_.

"Hey, I don't think I've ever seen you around before." Gabriella turned to face an African-American girl who had fallen in step with her. She had a short black bob, was dressed smartly and obviously walked with purpose.

"No, this is my first day here," Gabriella replied in her small shy voice.

"That would explain it. I pride myself in knowing something of everybody in the school, well, the freshman class at least, you're a freshman right?" The girl asked curiously before continuing. "Anyway, I'm Taylor, Taylor McKessie."

Amused, Gabriella smiled. "Yeah, I'm a freshman. Gabriella, Gabriella Montez."

"Awesome, I'll be looking for you. Gotta run now, Kels is waiting. Good luck on your first day, I promise you'll love East High. See you!" Taylor rushed off towards the side door, leaving Gabriella to continue her way to the main entrance while contemplating the possible budding friendship with the energetic girl. It wasn't long before she heard another voice beside her, a male one this time.

"What's up?" The boy had dirty blonde hair and a friendly exposition. Dressed in a relaxed but smart sweatshirt and dark jeans, he struck Gabriella as a confident guy. His eyes twinkled off growing maturity and intelligence.

Gabriella raised an eyebrow at him. "Do people here always try to talk to random people they don't know?"

He turned to her, smirking. "Why not? Besides, I'm always in favor of meeting new people, especially the cute girls."

Her face turning slightly pink, Gabriella took in his laughing expression and decided he was probably just joking.

"Right, and who are you?" She asked inquisitively.

"Matthew Morrison, they call me Matt. And you?"

"Gabriella." Her chary self thought it prudent to not say her full name.

"So Gabs," Gabriella shook her head at the new nickname, she already had too many to count, "why don't I go with you to the office, I'm assuming that's where you're headed." Matt grinned widely, "I'll be your welcoming guide."

"Nothing better to do?" She was incredulous, who would want to tag along a new student who was probably younger than them?

"Nope." He replied, smirking.

"Hmph." Gabriella found herself torn between wanting to escape Matt and wanting to learn more about him. She was quite curious as he looked to be a jock type while she considered herself a book worm and despite the mingling of cliques, she could not quite believe that the status quo could be broken that drastically. After a brief moment of consideration she resigned. "So you've always lived in Albuquerque?"

---------------

Bus 14 rolled into the high school premises at approximately 7:10 and a minute later the door opened and students flowed out, calling out to their friends as they rushed to share their holiday experiences. It was another minute before a brown-haired blue-eyed basketball player came down to be engulfed by best-friend-since-forever Chad.

"Yo Hoops, varsity tryouts are in two weeks! Aren't you hyped?" His afro bounced as he jumped up and down excitedly.

Troy's eyes shined as he laughed, happy to be back in the company of his crazy friend. "I thought you would have gone to find Taylor before pestering me about basketball."

"Oh, she's off finding the music girl, Kelsi, I think her name was, and basketball is the game, why wouldn't I talk about it?"

"I don't know, because you started going out with Taylor right before break and usually girlfriends are considered more important than a sport?" Troy teased.

"Whatever. How was your break anyway? You didn't return my calls or texts after New Year's," he ended with a sad tilt to his voice and a pout.

"Oh quit whining, I'll tell you when we get to my locker, I really don't want to be late for homeroom on the first day back. Ms. Darbus doesn't think too badly of me yet and I plan to keep it that way," Chad huffed as the two boys expertly weaved their way through the mass of people into the building towards the red and white line of lockers.

They had almost reached their lockers when Troy noticed familiar dark hair in the doorway of the guidance office. _That couldn't have been her could it? There's like a million high schools in the country… but what if it was?_ He didn't realize he was still looking over his shoulder at the door until Chad spoke up.

"Dude, what are you looking at? The guidance office is the same old, same old." His voice showed his puzzlement.

Troy quickly turned back to his friend. "Nothing, got caught in the spirit of the new semester I guess."

Chad shrugged it off, knowing how weirdly into school his best friend was but Troy was not thinking about classes. _I know this is wishful thinking but I can't help but feel like that was Gabriella, I sure hope it was._ It was that hope that shined in his eyes as they opened their lockers and began the day.

* * *

A/N It's my 15th birthday and that means my first fanfiction publishing starts! I'm so excited. I have to thank my beta, Stace (LongHardRoadOuttaHell) and all my supporting friends inside and outside the world of hsm fanfiction. I hope you liked this first chapter even though it was quite short. The next ones will be longer and I'll work out a schedule for updating. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2: Bubble and Poster

Chapter 2: Bubble and Poster

He had never in his sixteen years of life met someone so genuinely sweet and innocent, not even his brother when he was a baby. By now he knew that once you got through her wary exterior, Gabriella would bubble up and talk non-stop about anything and everything. So far, he had found out she had an older brother enrolled in the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, she had moved around a few times before but always went back to her home city, she had a cat named Bell (which had a double meaning, Bell as in literally ringing _DingDing_ and Belle as in beautiful) She also absolutely loved reading. Some called her a nerd and even a geek. Personally, Matt thought this was stupid as she was as far away from the stereotypical nerd or geek as possible but it looked as if Gabriella herself did not mind the labeling. This, he reflected, was an ability that not many people had, himself included and for that, he admired this new friend of his.

"Do you read much?" Gabriella asked as Matt grinned, his suspicion of her being a book-lover was correct although it was not that hard to tell considering she was holding two novels at the moment.

"Outside the school's required reading, not much. Sometimes certain books make me curious but yeah, not really, I'm assuming you do?" Gabriella blushed at the question, nodding.

"Always have, my mom used to bring me to the library or the bookstore every two weeks, I never grew out of the habit," Matt could see the gentle joy Gabriella had as she remembered her innocent childhood.

"Well then, entertain me, what are those two books? Maybe you can persuade me to read more," he teased, causing another round of blushes for Gabriella.

"This one is _The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud_, it's more of a romance and family but also a bit of supernatural. I actually only found it through a movie that is being released that is based on this book," she remembered she had found the summary online a few days ago and had immediately searched for it in the local library catalog. For her, it was one of those books that just got you hooked with the intricacies of the character and she loved that. "This other one is _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, you must have heard of it. Honestly, it was the whole '42 is the meaning of life' that got me interested."

"So that's where 42 came from," he commented, finally somewhat getting what his classmates had talked about once during class.

"Yes, makes me think how random the world must be for that to catch on as the 'meaning of life'," they sank into a comfortable silence as they walked through the school to the area with most of the classrooms.

When she realized she had no idea where she was heading, Gabriella looked down to the piece of white paper that was her schedule, scanning to the first row to find _Homeroom, Joanne Darbus, 228_. Lifting her head back up, she found Matt looking over her shoulder at the paper. Seeing her quizzical look, he pointed to the next hallway and said "228 is down that hallway on the right, I'll take you there. The room numbering system isn't that complicated really. The first number shows which part of the building it is in, there's three parts, the second number is the floor, we have three floors too and the last number is the number down the hallway." Gabriella smiled gratefully.

"Thanks so much, I don't know what I would have done without you. I think I would have got lost in a minute," she laughed softly, "oh my gosh! You have your own homeroom, you should go!"

Matt laughed, he loved the way she could be bashful one minute then sprightly the next. "It's fine, my homeroom's just upstairs, it takes like half a minute to get there from yours, which by the way, is right here." He pointed to the door next to a window pane brightly decorated with anything and everything related to theatre arts. "Ms. Darbus is famous for her crazy obsession with the theatre," Matt looked beside him to find Gabriella still staring at the decorations, seemingly stunned by the colors. Smiling, he nudged her.

"Wow," Gabriella blinked and shook her head to clear the momentary mind blank, "that is a lot." She turned back to Matt. "Umm, I guess this is it? I'll see you around?" She asked unsurely.

"That's the plan," he replied and winked at her before walking off with a wave.

As Matt disappeared up the stairs, Gabriella composed herself, put on a smile and pushed open the classroom door.

The first thing she noticed was the miniature stage in the front of the room, complete with curtains, props and backdrop. Similar theatrical objects and decorations covered the walls, giving the impression of a theatre storeroom. The morning sunlight filtered through the wide windows on the other side of the room, shining on the dozen or so students sitting on the desks and chairs socializing. Evidently, half the class had not gotten there yet. Finally, Gabriella turned her attention on the jovial-looking teacher sitting at the desk in front of the whiteboard dressed in an extravagant robe.

Gabriella stepped uncertainly into the room towards the teacher. "Um, Ms. Darbus?" Her nervous voice barely made four feet before fading into the chatter of the students. She took a few more steps and tried again. "Ms. Darbus?" The teacher looked up, startled from her work by the voice. "I'm, uh, new here, is this my homeroom?" Ms. Darbus gestured for Gabriella to wait and turned to her laptop to check while Gabriella stood there worriedly, just thankful that none of the students seemed to have noticed her.

"You're Gabriella Montez, correct?" Her head jerked up from gazing at the carpeted floor and quickly nodded in affirmation and finally relaxed when Ms. Darbus gave a wide smile. "There's an empty seat at the back of the classroom, the bell should ring within two minutes. Oh, and welcome to East High!" Happy that Ms. Darbus seemed to have taken a liking to her, or at least did not dislike her at first sight, Gabriella slipped past the students to the seat Ms. Darbus had indicated. Sure enough, she had barely settled down for a minute when the bell rang while a torrent of students ran in at the last second.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed your winter break and did not do anything overly stupid," Gabriella observed that Ms. Darbus was looking pointedly at some boy in the second row with a modest afro. "Most of you have been at East High for half a year now; I am expecting reports to improve. Now as you may know, the spring musicale cast list is up on the announcement board at the front of the school. Congratulations to the few of you here who got in." As she heard the teacher start to talk about cell phone rules, Gabriella zoned off the teacher's voice to observe her new classmates. Most were daydreaming as well. Immediately, she could spot the black bob of hair that belonged to the girl she had met that morning, Taylor McKessie. She was sat diagonally in front of Gabriella and had her planner laid out on her desk, no doubt getting her weeks ahead planned. The afro boy Gabriella had noticed earlier was nudging and whispering to another boy who was blocked from her view. As the rest of the class dozed off, Gabriella spotted Sharpay, her childhood best friend and the only person she properly knew in the school.

"_Oh my God Gabriella! You're coming to Albuquerque for real? Like, to stay? Permanently?" Thanks to Sharpay's high clear voice, not even the long-distance call could stop Gabriella from hearing every single world._

_She smiled happily. "As I've already said a million times, yes! My mom's got everything ready for me over there and dad doesn't seem to care so I'm coming on the December 17__th__ flight," she could not hide her excitement as she thought about rejoining her mother and best friend over in New Mexico._

"_This is so so cool! I've missed you so much, you are going to love Albuquerque and East High. We are going to have the best high school lives ever!" Sharpay had moved to Albuquerque, new Mexico U.S.A. three years ago with her family as her parents' country club business had took off and could not be contained in a crowded city._

_On the other side of the world, Gabriella giggled into the phone. "Of course Sharpay, who do you think we are? Wonder girls remember?" She teased her friend, referring to the nickname they had given themselves when they were seven._

_Sharpay groaned. "Stop using that name, it reminds me of that Korean pop band, you know the one with the five girls who sound like they should be twelve," she shuddered, remembering one of the songs that repeated the same phrase and melody over and over again, making the tune stuck in Sharpay's head for days on end._

"_But it's such a cute name! Anyway, how's the whole thing with Zeke going on?" The last time they had had a conversation, all Sharpay could talk about was the African American guy who had supposedly caught her heart with his cookie baking skills._

_Sharpay sighed heavily. "He's the basketball and food guy, I'm the high-maintenance theatre girl, nobody, including him, sees the connection. I think my Ice Queen status backfired on me."_

_Gabriella winced, hearing the defeated tone of her normally perky friend. "He'll come round I'm sure, don't give up, he might be the one." Despite everything that had happened to her family, Gabriella insisted on being faithful to the idea of true love, she was too much of a dreamer. Because of this, whenever the opportunity came up, she encouraged her friends to pursue their fairytale love life. Meanwhile, she waited for the day her prince would find her._

"_I guess…" Sharpay sighed again, "oh! OH! I hope you're in my homeroom, we have such a fabulous mix of people it's so fun when the announcements are over and we get to chill out before the bell rings." Gabriella could hear the elatedness in Sharpay's voice and continued to listen to what her most dramatic best friend had to say about her new school._

Turned out Gabriella was put in Sharpay's homeroom after all, she mused. Ms. Darbus finished with her list of announcements five minutes later and the classroom gradually got louder as the students mingled and chatted. Gabriella quickly walked towards Sharpay who was at the other side of the room. It felt awkward passing between all these people she did not know.

Troy was irritated. Yes, Chad was his best friend but did he really have to bother Troy for the whole ten minutes that Ms. Darbus was talking? He could not concentrate on anything while his friend pestered him about basketball practice sessions. Fortunately, Troy's patience was not too short and he managed to bear with it. Ms. Darbus had just finished her mini speech and Troy could sense his friends around him were about to bombard him with questions about his lack of communication with them over the break as Chad had already started to do. Three, two, one…

"TROY BOLTON!" Troy twisted around to see Taylor McKessie, Chad's girlfriend of two months, heading towards them with a determined look on her face. She obviously wanted to talk to him.

"Yes Taylor?" He answered her yell in a normal tone.

"Where have you been? I had to deal with dunderhead over here all by myself!" At the reference to him, Chad looked at his girlfriend indignantly while Troy tried to suppress a laugh.

"If that was the only problem then I'm quite sure you were completely fine without me," at Taylor's continued glare at him Troy added, "but if you must know, I was at the ski resort with my family as I had already told you and when I got back my dad kept me practicing every minute that I wasn't doing homework, or eating, or sleeping. You know? What everybody usually does?"

"That's no excuse, you could at least have texted one of us," Troy shrugged nonchalantly at this.

"I was too exhausted to be bothered," Taylor warily observed Troy as he said this, suspicious there was more to his vacation than he had let on. She was used to Troy's sociable personality and the appearance of this sudden quite side of Troy had her beyond curious. As she scrutinized him, Troy just calmly looked straight back into her eyes. He wanted to keep his holiday happenings a secret for himself, at least for now. Otherwise, Taylor and probably the rest of the gang would pester him relentlessly and he did not think that he could deal with that right now.

When the tension started building noticeably it was Kelsi, the reserved composer friend who dissolved it. "Oh stop that staring contest you two," slowly, they turned to look at her instead of each other. "It's the first day back, come on! Lighten up!"

Troy smiled at Kelsi and nodded in agreement before he turned back to Taylor. "She's right, it's the first day back and I intend to have fun. I will tell you what happened in my own time and before you ask, that time is not now. So don't try." A few more moments of silence between them later, Taylor relented. Troy was still her friend as well as her boyfriend's best friend. She would have to trust him.

By this point most of the gang had grouped around Troy and Chad's desks and had been watching the small dispute. Taylor had always been the uptight genius who wanted everything perfectly planned while Troy was the calmer, optimistic and academically-gifted jock. It was always interesting to watch their arguments though they did not have many.

"Where's Sharpay?" Jason asked. Everybody stared at him. He was the guy who stayed silent until he had something extraordinarily useless thing to say and here he was asking about the only person in the gang that was missing but no one had noticed. Incredible.

"Dude, you're not crushing on her are you?" Chad asked back while the rest of them searched the room for their blonde friend, "You never notice things."

"God no! Just pointing it out, jeez," Jason rolled his eyes, his silence did not mean that he was completely oblivious.

As if reading his mind, Chad replied: "you never, and I mean never, know what to say or what everybody else is expecting from you. Remember that time in eighth grade? You just had to tell Mr. Brown that we were basically done with the math unit and he made the test the next day, causing everybody to fail."

"It wasn't everybody," Jason muttered.

Chad rolled his eyes. "Yeah, not everybody, just all those who aren't freaking geniuses." He proceeded to look pointedly at Troy, Martha and of course, Taylor. All of whom gave him the 'not my fault!' expression.

Taylor sighed and decided to stop the two boys' bickering. "Sharpay's over at her desk with the new girl."

"We have a new girl? Why haven't I seen her?" Troy asked, alert.

"She's actually pretty nice, talked to her a bit before school this morning, wonder what she's doing with our ice queen," Taylor pondered

Martha's expression lit up. The dancer had noticed the quiet unknown student sit at her desk after she talked to the teacher before the bell but Martha had not connected the dots until now. "You mean the petite girl with the wavy hair?" At Taylor's nod, she continued, "she went to sit at the empty seat a few places behind you Troy, probably why you didn't see her. That and you were talking to Chad."

"Chad, was talking to me. Not the other way round," Troy defended. Knowing he had already wasted precious minutes talking, he let his eyes wander towards Sharpay's desk beside the window. That was when he saw the unforgettable hair that he had thought he saw in the hallways as well. "Gabriella?" He whispered. He did not want to get his hopes up too much.

Taylor, however, had heard his soft voice despite the noise around them. "That's her name! She told me when I asked her," she smiled, that introduction conversation had been short but sweet.

The instant Taylor had said that was the new girl's name, Troy shot up, heart pumping as if he was playing in the basketball playoffs. Maybe, he thought, maybe, fate did this to us on purpose. That has to be her from the New Year's Eve party. It was time to be optimistic again. _Carpe Diem._ Seize the day.

"I'm going to go talk to her. Just in case she's not in any of my other classes," Troy announced, getting up from his seat while the others looked at him, shocked.

"Troy… I know you're friendly and all that but I've never seen you straightforward go to someone you don't know at all. A girl even," Chad pointed out to his best friend, still wide-eyed at the strange behavior Troy had been sporadically showing since he came off the bus.

Troy's eyes twinkled as he answered, "always good to know new people you know? Think of it as testing out the extents of my socializing skills." Still smiling, he resolutely maneuvered his way through the front of the classroom to where Sharpay, Ryan and Gabriella—hopefully the one he knew—was. As he passed by the Romeo and Juliet poster about true love that Ms. D. had set up, he knew he was doing the right thing. Besides, if anything, he would be making a new friend.

* * *

A/N Hope you liked this! And enjoyed the hsm weekend on disney channel last week those of you who could. I will try to write more this weekend. Have a great week all! Feedback much appreciated =] ~Pam


	3. Chapter 3: Rules and Classes

Sharpay was entertaining to say the least. In the past few minutes she had managed to chatter out every single detail of her life in Albuquerque the past three years. She had also given Gabriella the set of East High social rules that every student in the school followed. These rules included never ignore guys, find your niche in the school, join—or at least watch—the musicals (this particular point made Gabriella even more suspicious that the rules were made by Sharpay and only she knew about them), and adore Troy.

"Who's Troy?" Gabriella asked, her mind flashing back to New Year's Eve for if her memory served her right the boy she had met there had a very similar name.

"Only the hottest upcoming basketball player in the school, resident of this very homeroom!" Sharpay's voice has become even more delighted if that was possible.

"So he's basically a good-looking jock, common enough," personally, Gabriella had never knew anyone close who was a jock type. Her friendship groups always seemed to revolve around academics and sometimes music. She did watch basketball and football games on TV occasionally though, largely because of her older brother's love for those particular sports.

Sharpay shook her head furiously. "His dad's the coach and this school runs on basketball pride," she explained in an all-knowing tone. Gabriella giggled. Sharpay made this boy sound like a NBA superstar celebrity of some sort instead of a regular high school guy who loved his sport. Either way, she made for a perfect fan girl.

"He's not just a jock though," Sharpay continued, "everybody loves him for his personality, he just makes you happy." She smiled at Gabriella who looked skeptical at such a description of a high school basketball star, "honest."

Gabriella laughed, "I'll believe you when I see the proof, how can somebody be so angelic as well as a basketball star?"

The thespian girl rolled her eyes. "Stop being so cynical, there are a lot of great all-rounded people with good personality as well as academic and athletic excellence. Not everybody who is ultra good at something focuses on that particular thing every minute of the day, it works well too when you're talking about stress relieving. I should know, I used to spend so much time in rehearsals, was all tense." She shuddered, now that she knew what relaxation felt like, she would never give it up.

"I can't help it," Gabriella shrugged, "I want to do everything perfect, I can't settle for anything less. It's like I feel guilty whenever I stray off focus."

"That's _exactly_ why you need to relax! Learn to fly Gabi!" She exclaimed. When Gabriella looked at her strangely, wondering why her friend was using such a cliché saying, Sharpay put her hands together in a clap, "that's it, today's Thursday, tomorrow after school I am giving you a crash course in proper high school girl life."

The dark haired petite girl let out a sigh. "Fine, fine, whatever it takes to calm you down."

"Calm me down? I can't be calmed down right now, your crash course is starting now!" Sharpay started to speak extraordinarily fast. Apparently, this time she was not just giving the low down on East High life, instead, she was explaining the basics of teenage girl life in general.

"So why are you telling me this now instead of in one go tomorrow?" You would think that after all these years, she would have gotten the hang of Sharpay's character.

"Because you have to know this stuff ASAP!" Sharpay retorted.

"Okay, okay, continue," Gabriella leaned back in her chair and let her friend ramble, she could not think of any other way to handle the situation.

Sharpay's animated movements suddenly stopped. Then she hyperventilated. This caused Gabriella to stare at her strangely. "Is there something wrong Sharpay?" she asked, simultaneously concerned and amused. There were times when Sharpay had well-founded reasons for her shock attacks but other times, her reasons could be priceless to listen to.

Although she already sported a perfect appearance, Sharpay frantically patted down invisible creases in her light pink outfit and fluffed her wavy blonde hair as Gabriella watched and waited patiently for an explanation. Sharpay's pocket mirror was whipped out to double check make up and every few seconds she would whip her head up to look at a point somewhere behind Gabriella before she went back to dealing with her look of a high maintenance girl. "Remember Troy Bolton?" She stage whispered across the desk.

"Yes, we were talking about him a minute ago…" Gabriella answered in a normal voice as she prodded her friend for elaboration.

"Shhh, he's walking over here, directly towards us!" She told Gabriella, seemingly agitated over simple fact.

"And that is worthy of this frantic attack because…" Gabriella cocked her head to one side questioningly.

"Didn't you hear what I said before? He's _the_ guy of the class!" Sharpay tried to press the importance of the event to Gabriella with surprisingly more success for the new girl's shyer side was showing itself.

"Oh goodness, I can't talk to him in my first hour at East High," she said, worried at how she would appear to this supposedly respect-worthy boy.

Sharpay smiled, she knew Gabriella would fit in anyway. "Don't worry, you already talked with Matt right?" Gabriella shot her a look to ask how she knew about the conversation with Matt but Sharpay ignored her. "Look, you'll be fine, I was freaking out a moment ago too, it's natural. Act natural."

_Well Sharpay's there so I can use her as an excuse for conversation, what should I say… _Troy pondered as he carefully avoided the random props that had fallen on the floor from shelves as he approached the desk by the window. He chuckled when he realized "Sharpay" was doodled with big loopy handwriting and stars all over the table. He looked up at the best dressed girl herself and saw her whisper something to the girl with her back towards him.

"Hey Sharpay," he smiled at his friend, "how was your vacation?"

The two girls startled in their chairs. Troy was standing right between them although he was reaching for a spare chair to sit in. When she recovered from her start, Sharpay replied, "it was good thanks, and yours Bolton?"

Troy grinned, "amazing," he answered simply.

Sharpay quirked her eyebrows at him, optimistic boy seemed to have got even happier in the weeks she had not seen him. She was curious, Troy had told her once that he as much as he loved the sport, he did not enjoy spending every single moment of his breaks on the court. Yet, he had said that was his schedule for the December break, so why was he so especially happy? "Something you need to tell me?"

"Not before you introduce me to your friend here," he nodded towards the girl who had so far hidden herself behind her long locks, "I'm quite sure anybody who is your friend can't be all that bad."

"I'm flattered," Sharpay told Troy, "well then, Gabi, this is—"

"Troy Bolton, nice to meet you," he beamed as Gabriella shook her hair away to reveal herself.

_Time to be brave and not shy, you dealt well with Matt didn't you?_ Gabriella looked up at the brown haired boy. She stared at the familiar baby blue eyes and gasped softly. She could not believe her destiny had come to this. "Hi?" she questioned more than stated.

Being slightly more prepared than Gabriella was for this encounter, Troy just chuckled. "Nobody uses the 'nice to meet you' greeting anymore do they?" He finally sat down, "I feel like I've seen you before though…" he trailed off with a nervous chuckle.

Gabriella still could not find her voice. Here, sitting right beside her with a smile was the blue eyed boy she had been dreaming about since her fairytale night. She forgot about the curious blonde sitting across her, Troy's group of friends talking among themselves on the other side of the room, and the classroom clock that indicated homeroom period would end in three minutes. What was she supposed to say in reply to his introduction?

She echoed his nervous chuckle, although hers was more of a giggle, "ehhh, maybe.. were you by any chance in Michigan this Christmas?"

"Mmhmm," he nodded, "was there with family, ski resort with awesome snowboarding and New Year's party, why?" he gave a small smile to Gabriella.

Taking a rare chance, she replied, "your showerhead is proud of your singing, am I right?" By this time, Sharpay was thoroughly confused as well as intrigued. Why was Gabriella relating what seemed like an inside joke? She was then astonished to hear a fun laugh coming from Troy.

"Yes, you are Gabriella Montez I assume?" Sharpay's eyes widened, she was quite sure nobody had told Troy Gabriella's last name.

"Yep, so sorry I had to rush off that night, but I guess whoever the god of coincidences is wanted this…" She pushed her naturally wavy hair behind her ear, now Troy could see her face unobstructed. It sure was pretty.

Sharpay chose this moment to interrupt, "wait a minute, you guys know each other?" She asked, looking back and forth between the pair sitting opposite her before she turned to Gabriella, "you were asking who he was just a moment ago!"

Troy raised an eyebrow, "oh so you were talking about me?"

Gabriella jerked, "no no no, Sharpay was just giving me an overall introduction to the class, nothing in particular," she covered up. She did not want Troy to know her insecurities and what Sharpay had told her, however nice and genuine he appeared to be.

"Answer me!" Sharpay half yelled, causing her two friends next to her to start in their seats and tell her to hush. In a quieter voice she continued, "how the hell do you two know each other?"

Back to her nervous self, Gabriella stuttered, "um uh er… over the vacation, I was um at the you know, I was at the ski, yeah the ski…"

"The ski resort in Michigan, amazing place. New Year's party, karaoke, met Gabriella there," Troy purposely cut down the explanation, it was simpler this way. After all, that was a rather private experience, to him at least. He did not know about Gabriella but from the way she had been stumbling before he interrupted her, he guessed she did not quite want to tell everybody either.

"Gabi, why didn't you say anything, you met _Troy!_" Gabriella shrugged while Troy was just amused at Sharpay's reaction. It honestly wasn't such a big deal. He looked behind his shoulders to check the clock, the bell would ring in forty-five seconds (yes, the clocks were that accurate and synchronized). He should probably head back to Chad and the others before going to first period.

"So great to see you again Gabriella, I'll be seeing you around I think and you're always welcome to sit with me and my friends at lunch," he glanced over at Sharpay, "you probably will anyway, since ice queen over there seems to want to lead you around and she's with us. I have to go now, bell's going to ring in a second, bye!" He walked back the way he came, only pausing to wave at Gabriella who sat there, lost for words.

Sharpay was right, Troy was a nice guy in every single way, you couldn't help but like him more for it. When she had to leave the resort all those days ago she thought she would never see the brown haired blue eyed boy again, but here he was, in her new school, making himself her friend. She didn't have much choice right now but to follow his lead, at least it will be nice to get close to a key persona in the school. First though, she had to get through this first day at East High. Academics first, friendships and romance second.

---------------

While Troy walked across the room and talked to the two girls, his main group of friends hung back around their desks to relax before they headed off to their various classes. For most of them, this was the only good thing about coming to school, getting to have maximum time with friends.

Chad yawned. It was barely eight o'clock and he had been up since six thirty, rushing to the bus stop at six forty-five. First day back and he hated the early wake up time again. Plus, he was bored, the girls were gossiping about who-knows-what, Troy was being suspicious, not chilling with him, and the rest of the guys were discussing the NBA standings. Chad had been talking about the NBA so much that he was actually sick of it, which was weird, but Chad himself would admit that he is a weird person.

"Chad, CHAD," Taylor stopped her boyfriend's daydreaming, "what do you think Troy's doing?"

"What, talking to the new girl? I dunno, maybe he thinks she's cute, which she is by the way," Taylor shot him a quick look at this, then resumed observing Troy with Sharpay and Gabriella

"But he's not really the type to decide in the first few minutes that he sees a girl that he wants to be good friends with her," Taylor continued her analysis of the situation. "And anyway, how does Sharpay know Gabriella? They look quite close."

"Who knows? She transferred here three years ago right? Maybe she knew the girl, Gabriella you said her name is? Gabriella, before she came. Or she could be her new next door neighbor," Chad said.

Chad had a point, Taylor thought. Sharpay never really divulged much of her past life with them. All they knew was that her father's business, Lava Springs, had expanded to Albuquerque so she had moved here. They also knew that she was extremely well-off and loved theater but that was about it. She never mentioned friends or other interests.

"Well, I hope Troy knows what he's doing," Taylor commented.

"It's Troy, he'll be fine, even if he's not, he'll just laugh it off, not much use worrying about what he does," he smiled, that was the great thing about his best friend. He never needed much attention for he could handle himself very well while spending his life laughing with his friends. Twelve years of being best friends had also taught Chad that Troy was beyond smart and fun, honestly, if he was not, they would not be such good friends. Chad would never be acceptable friends with someone who did not know fun.

"Chad, you should know me by now, I like to keep track of everybody, especially those who have a great influence on the class and those we're close to. Troy fits in both categories and I have a feeling Gabriella soon will too," she observed Sharpay's confused expression while Troy was happy and Gabriella just seemed shy like she was when she was talking to Taylor outside.

Chad laughed, that was so his girlfriend. He leaned up to kiss her on the cheek and settled in his chair to get a bit of shut eye for a few minutes. As he checked the clock again, he groaned though when he realized homeroom was almost up. Thirty seconds, Troy was getting up and heading back towards them, twenty seconds, Chad noticed he had a big smile on his face, ten seconds, a satisfied smile no less.

**Dong, dong, dong.**

There the bell went. As per habit, everybody in the room grabbed their bags and got up at the same time to head out the door. Chad and Taylor got up as well as Troy reached underneath his desk beside them to get his textbook full bag. As the three led the rest of the gang out the door, Troy stayed silent, seemingly deep in thought.

"So guys, what classes do you have first period? I have English" Martha spoke up. Everybody reached out for their schedules to check.

"Math," Ryan replied, sighing. It certainly wasn't his favorite subject.

"Same here," Kelsi said, looking over at the blonde haired boy, smiling. She looked back down when the smile was returned, her heart pumping.

"History for me," Jason said and looked over at Chad's paper, "hey, you have it too, same room even, now I don't have to worry about being bored," Chad laughed along with him.

Taylor sighed at the boys, she seemed to do that quite a bit. "I have English too, Martha, I don't get why we our schedules have to change completely every semester, isn't every year enough?"

"This school doesn't make sense," Zeke offered, "well, not a lot of sense anyway."

The friends laughed, he spoke the truth but they all loved East High anyway. Basketball crazy, run on school pride, and with a haywire schedule and lunchtime, it was still their home and everybody loves their home. Everybody normal, that is.

Kelsi glanced beside her at Troy who hadn't made a sound and was still contemplating. She nudged him. "What's up?" she whispered. Troy wasn't usually this quiet, especially when around his good friends.

Troy looked at her, "oh nothing really," seeing her skeptical expression, "I'm fine, honest, you know what, I'll catch up with you guys later." With that he left an open-mouthed Kelsi as he jogged around a corner, presumably to his class. What Kelsi did not see was that he had been tracking Sharpay and had run to her to talk with her a bit more.

Kelsi turned towards the rest of them with a confused look that was shared by many. Maybe this wasn't going to be the typical second semester they had been expecting after all. Not with their leading friend being all mysterious. Thoughts were everywhere as they promised to meet up at lunch before they split up to their respective classes.

* * *

A/N Hey guys! So sorry for being a week late, I might have to start updating every two weeks instead of one, might being the key word. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this. It means a lot now that I'm settling into it more. Again, feedback much appreciated. Love, Pam.


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